Stolen Plane Circling Over German City

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, January 4, 2003

An armed man stole a small airplane from an airfield in western Germany on Sunday, and police said he was threatening to crash it in the city of Frankfurt.

Several skyscrapers in the country's financial capital were evacuated as a precaution, and streets cleared in the city. A helicopter was pursuing the aircraft and trying to force it away from the city, Frankfurt police said.

The plane was stolen Sunday afternoon from an airfield at Babenhausen, just to the southeast of Frankfurt, said Axel Raab, a spokesman for the German air safety agency.

The man threatened the pilot of the plane with a weapon, then took over the controls and took off, Raab said.

The Frankfurt airport, continental Europe's largest, was running normally, although authorities were considering restricting traffic. Raab said the man was seeking contact with CNN.